Allied For Startups' Analysis of the European Commission’s Apply AI Strategy and AI in Science Strategy

The European Commission’s Apply AI Strategy and its companion AI in Science Strategy show Europe’s intent to move from regulation to adoption. Yet, Europe still moves too slowly and too timidly to become “the AI continent.”

The Apply AI Strategy aims to boost AI adoption across the economy and public sector, but it lacks the operational clarity, funding speed, and access mechanisms startups need to turn plans into products. Without clear eligibility rules or dedicated startup pathways, it risks adding layers of coordination instead of creating opportunities for builders.

The AI in Science Strategy begins to address some of these gaps – offering startups a role in governance (through RAISE), access to AI Gigafactories, and recognition as key drivers of innovation. But the scientific and industrial strands remain fragmented rather than forming one coherent path from research to application. Europe’s innovators need a single, joined-up framework connecting both strategies into a practical route from lab to market.

Both Strategies set ambition without instruments: no clear access path for startups, no fast funding channels, and no roadmap for delivery. Until these exist, “applying AI” will remain more slogan than strategy.

Startups already apply AI daily – building products, testing solutions, and translating research into results. They don’t need another framework; they need access, speed, and ambition from policymakers. Europe cannot claim to “apply AI” while making it harder for startups to grow.

Europe’s AI story is being written by founders and small teams experimenting at scale. Their biggest barriers are not ambition or talent, but access – to compute, data, markets, and predictable rules. Promising initiatives like AI Factories, Gigafactories, Acceleration Pipelines, and the AI Observatory will only matter if startups can actually use them. Today, they still seem built for incumbents, not innovators. Without startup on-ramps and simplified funding, Europe risks another cycle of big visions and slow delivery.

Startups move faster than strategies. Allied for Startups (AFS) has long called for an AI agenda that is faster, simpler, and more inclusive:

• Open AI infrastructure startups can use;
• Rapid, lightweight funding;
• Real collaboration between startups, corporates, and public actors;
• Proportionate rules that reward experimentation.

The Apply AI Strategy’s sectoral flagships in healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, energy, and defence show promise, but they lack ecosystem connectivity. Europe doesn’t need more pilots – it needs quick, practical, and open implementation. Each delay widens the competitiveness gap and wastes opportunities for scaling globally.

Many of the Strategy’s ideas – skills, monitoring, and public-sector AI – echo proposals from Hacktivate AI, a policy hackathon co-organised by AFS and OpenAI. The Commission should build on this collaborative, bottom-up approach during implementation.

Europe has no shortage of strategies – what it needs now is delivery. Success will depend on merging both Strategies into a single, operational framework that startups can plug into today.

AFS urges the Commission to move immediately from announcement to action:

• Operationalise the AI Factories and ensure compute access for early-stage startups;
• Turn Acceleration Pipelines into open, challenge-based calls that include founders and SMEs from day one;
• Use the AI Observatory as a feedback loop with real data on startup adoption;
• And connect Europe’s AI plans with Europe’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, where the actual innovation is happening.

Europe has the talent, research, and entrepreneurial energy to lead in AI – but leadership will come from execution, not coordination. To truly apply AI, Europe must act with the same speed and ambition as the innovators it seeks to empower.